There are, unfortunately, no known videos (for commercial sale) of Kirkland in Giselle. I, too, am a "hard-core" Kirkland fan! All we get to see on video is the Nutcracker and Baryshnikov at Wolftrap. I wish she would agree to the release of more performance videos of her dancing.

Wait, I just remembered - I have a video copy of an episode of "L.A. Law" (that I think first aired in 1992 or 1993) anyway...Kirkland plays a ballerina who takes her artisitic director to court! At the end of the episode it shows Kirkland rehearsing Giselle (in soft slippers, no pointe shoes), and is only about two minutes long! I guess that's about as close to her Giselle as I'm ever going to get!

The Dance Research Collection in NYC has available for viewing (but only in the library) a half-hour video of bits of Kirkland and Baryshnikov dancing Giselle. They were filmed in early 1975 at the New York State Theater, I believe, on a camera snuck in by an usher. The film was later retrofitted with a piano accompaniment. (There's other Gelsey footage available, including bits of Theme and Variations and La Sylphide.)

These performances were when Gelsey was at the peak of her powers. The Giselle excerpts are just stunning, despite the breaks in the action and odd angles (shot from Fourth Ring) and blurriness. I had to re-evaluate in my mind what makes a great Giselle, and bump all my other remembered "best" performances down a notch or two. The commercial videos of Kirkland don't do her justice. These amateur clips show exactly what all the fuss was about.

yvonne, would you like to swap something for a copy of that episode? i don't remember ever seeing it. reply to me at mejapatricia@hotmail.com. thanks!

Originally posted by Yvonne:There are, unfortunately, no known videos of Kirkland in Giselle. I, too, am a "hard-core" Kirkland fan! All we get to see on video is the Nutcracker and Baryshnikov at Wolftrap. I wish she would agree to the release of more performance videos of her dancing.

Wait, I just remembered - I have a video copy of an episode of "L.A. Law" (that I think first aired in 1992 or 1993) anyway...Kirkland plays a ballerina who takes her artisitic director to court! At the end of the episode it shows Kirkland rehearsing Giselle (in soft slippers, no pointe shoes), and is only about two minutes long! I guess that's about as close to her Giselle as I'm ever going to get!